For years, Forbes 30 Under 30 has been sold as a crystal ball for the future: a glossy list of young founders, financiers, and disruptors who are supposedly shaping the world before most people have paid off their student loans. But in the last decade, the list has picked up a darker, almost folkloric reputation. Too many alumni haven’t just flamed out – they’ve ended up in courtrooms, prison cells, or extradition hearings. Even Singapore had one alumni who was actually removed from the list.
No wonder phrase has been going around: the curse of Forbes 30 Under 30. Here are some of the most notorious names that helped cement that reputation.
Gökçe Güven, Kalder (Named in 2025)
The newest entry is Gökçe Güven, named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2025. Hailing from Turkiye, Güven founded Kalder, a US-based fintech company that claimed to help communities build and monetise digital loyalty programmes.
According to the US Department of Justice, the UC Berkeley alumna raised about US$7 million from more than a dozen investors using false information in pitch decks. The government says Güven kept two sets of financial records, including inflated figures shown to investors, and used false claims and forged documents to obtain a US visa for individuals of “extraordinary ability”.
She has been charged with securities fraud, wire fraud, visa fraud, and identity theft, is currently out on strict bail, and faces up to 52 years in prison if convicted.
Do Kwon, Terraform Labs (Named in 2022)
South Korean national Do Kwon’s rise and fall played out in Southeast Asia. Kwon founded Terraform Labs, which was headquartered in Singapore and developed the LUNA and UST cryptocurrencies. UST was marketed as a “stablecoin”, supposedly pegged to the US dollar through algorithmic mechanisms rather than cash reserves. When that peg collapsed in 2022, tens of billions of dollars in value evaporated almost overnight, with many retail investors in Asia hit especially hard.
Kwon – a Stanford alum who once worked for Microsoft and Apple – became the subject of international manhunts, was eventually detained, and extradited to the United States. He has been charged with securities fraud and conspiracy; at the time of writing, he remains in US custody and faces a lengthy potential prison sentence (up to 15 years) if convicted.
Caroline Ellison, Alameda Research (Named in 2022)
Stanford math whizz Caroline Ellison was listed in 2022, when she was the CEO of Alameda Research, the US-based quantitative trading firm closely tied to FTX (she was actually the girlfriend of FTX’s founder – see below). Alameda played a central role in the misuse of customer funds that led to FTX’s collapse. Ellison, who’s a massive Potterhead, pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges and cooperated with prosecutors.
She was sentenced to two years in prison and is currently serving her sentence, often portrayed as both an insider and a cautionary tale about loyalty in founder-led empires.
Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX (Named in 2021)
MIT alum Sam Bankman-Fried was the poster child of crypto’s golden age. The math whizz founded FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in the Bahamas, with major operations tied to the US. FTX positioned itself as a safer, more responsible alternative to the wild west of crypto trading. Instead, it collapsed spectacularly in 2022, revealing that roughly US$8 billion in customer funds were missing and allegedly funnelled to affiliated trading firm Alameda Research.
Bankman-Fried was convicted on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in US federal court and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He is currently incarcerated, a stark symbol of crypto hype curdling into criminal liability.
Charlie Javice, Frank (Named in 2019)
Wharton grad Charlie Javice was recognised in 2019 for founding Frank, a US-based fintech startup that claimed to help students navigate financial aid applications. Frank positioned itself as mission-driven, promising to simplify access to education funding. That narrative unravelled after JPMorgan acquired the company and alleged that Javice had fabricated user data to inflate the platform’s value.
She was convicted of fraud and conspiracy, sentenced to seven years in prison, and ordered to pay US$287 million in restitution. Javice is now incarcerated, her case often cited as a warning about due diligence failures in startup acquisitions.
Billy McFarland, Fyre Festival (Named in 2018)
Billy McFarland was named in 2018 for co-founding Fyre Media, a New York–based company that promoted itself as a next-gen media and events brand. He became globally infamous for the Fyre Festival, a luxury music festival in the Bahamas that was marketed using influencers and glossy visuals but collapsed into chaos on arrival, with inadequate food, shelter, and infrastructure.
Unlike many on the Forbes list, he didn’t go to a prestigious college (he was actually a dropout). McFarland defrauded investors and customers by misrepresenting the festival’s finances, partnerships, and readiness. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and was sentenced to six years in federal prison, ordered to forfeit millions, and barred from serving as a company director. He was released early in 2022 and has since attempted various business comebacks.
Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos (Named in 2015)
Elizabeth Holmes was celebrated as the founder and CEO of Theranos, a Silicon Valley health-tech startup based in Palo Alto, California. Theranos claimed it could run hundreds of medical tests using just a few drops of blood, a breakthrough that promised to revolutionise diagnostics. In reality, the technology never worked as advertised, and the company relied on deception to mislead investors, regulators, and patients.
Holmes also has a connection with Singapore: while studying at Stanford, she briefly worked in a laboratory at the Genome Institute of Singapore, doing research on the SARS virus.
Holmes was convicted on four counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in the US. She was sentenced to 11 years in prison and ordered to pay hundreds of millions in restitution. She is currently incarcerated, and her downfall is now widely seen as the blueprint for how hype, prestige, and media validation can shield fraud for far too long.
The moral of the story
Taken together, these stories don’t mean ambition is criminal or youth is reckless by default. But they do reveal how prestige lists can amplify hype, reward speed over scrutiny, and blur the line between visionary and unchecked. The curse of Forbes 30 Under 30 isn’t supernatural. It’s structural: and it thrives wherever attention outpaces accountability.
